Part 1. The Missionary Phase
Profile of the library elite
The social ideals of early library leaders
Part 2. Moral Passage: The Fiction Problem
Immoral fiction in the late Victorian library
The shift in attitudes toward popular fiction
Part 3. Melvil Dewey: Mission and Mechanics
Columbia College, 1883-1888
Final diversions, 1906-1931
From missionary to professional
Part 4. The Tender Technicians
Feminization: symbol and reality
The effect on professionalization
Librarianship, charity work, and the settlement movement
Maid militant: the progressive years and World War I
The decline of the genteel library hostess.
